


... Wouldn't You?

by EzraTheBlue



Series: Fastball [7]
Category: Saiyuki
Genre: M/M, Minor Violence, Pre-Journey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-27
Updated: 2017-06-27
Packaged: 2018-11-19 14:10:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11315022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EzraTheBlue/pseuds/EzraTheBlue
Summary: A conversation about a dead youkai.





	... Wouldn't You?

The courtyard outside of the temple's sanctuary echoed with grunts and thuds as Gojyo and Goku dodged and parried their way through a training session. Hakkai and Sanzo looked on, Hakkai with a blithe smile and Sanzo tracing Goku’s every movement with his gaze. He seemed to watch Gojyo’s too, but even Hakkai caught him stumble, and nearly voiced a protest until Gojyo landed on his feet, recovering quickly.

“Tch.” Sanzo crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow. “He’s still injured, isn’t he?”

“Ah?” Hakkai played dumb for a moment, but the cant of Sanzo’s scowl told him there was no point. “From dealing with those thieves, you mean.” 

“You said he was tied to a chair and beaten.” Sanzo turned from the brawl, studying Hakkai. “You said you removed your limiters.” He didn't need to remind Hakkai what he'd done with the umbrella, or his claws.

“I felt I had no other choice.” Hakkai didn’t let Sanzo’s needling prod his smile loose, but Sanzo had grounded himself better than either Goku or Gojyo did in the ring, clearly looking to land a strike of his own. 

“You could have lost control.”

“Sanzo–”

“You’ve heard the rumors.” Sanzo whipped his focus away, just as Goku got up under Gojyo and knocked him flying to the edge of the practice ring. Hakkai nearly moved in to pick him up, but Gojyo recovered and rolled to his feet, coming at Goku again with a madman’s grin and the chain of the sickle in hand. As Hakkai eased back into the spectator’s zone, Sanzo subtly shifted his focus back to Hakkai; not enough that Goku would start wailing for Sanzo to watch him, but enough that the hairs on the back of Hakkai’s neck rose. “They found one of the thieves dead on the street.”

Hakkai felt something cold bleed in at the edges of his perception. “Ah?”

“Not strangled. Not rent limb from limb. No entrails strewn about. Just a knife to the gut.” Sanzo’s stance shifted, and Hakkai stilled. “It was assumed he was ended by someone he’d wronged elsewhere, but weren’t you just telling Gojyo you needed to stop and replace your butcher knife on the way home?” Hakkai sucked his lower lip in for a moment, thinking, and Sanzo slowly pivoted to face him. “You were entirely in control, weren’t you.”

It wasn’t a question, nor was it the question asked or answered. “Ah. Come to think, there was a gentleman among that band of thieves that Gojyo knew personally, the one that got him held hostage in the first place.” Hakkai rested his hands in his pockets, watching closely as Goku and Gojyo parried their way back and forth across the ring. “And oh, how he spoke of Gojyo to me. How foul his language. The implications. The ways in which he used him. Tell me, Sanzo, do the monks here ever speak unkindly of Goku?” Sanzo made a strangled noise, but Hakkai sighed. “Or have any of them harmed and betrayed him, or hurt him in just the way he’s been hurt before? The way he is always hurt? If a man were like that to Goku in your presence, just think…” Hakkai cast a loaded glance to Sanzo, tearing his eyes from Gojyo for a moment. “Come, don’t lie to me. You would have murdered him too.”

Gojyo hit the ground with a loud impact, and Hakkai pivoted back around, smiling, as Gojyo groaned for a medic. Sanzo watched as Hakkai crossed into the ring, as he smiled for Gojyo with perfect ease and began to patch him up with healer’s hands. He recalled the rumors of youkai losing control in the West, then wondered just how deep, how far, how insidious that corruption might prove.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt: Hakkai, "come on you would have murdered that guy too"


End file.
